In recent years, Electronic gambling in Tunisia has spread so remarkably that there is not a single neighborhood without one or more spaces for gambling.
Most Tunisian youth have become addicted to these games aiming at achieving quick profit.
Though the names of these sites are different, their content and goals are not different from each other, which is to rob the visitors of these sites as much money as possible.
And if it has a margin of fake profit that will only return to the site in order to double the amount of profit or because of addiction.
“Ali” is one of the workers in the gambling shops in the center of the capital. He confirmed to “JDD Tunisia” that the sums of money in the possession of all gambling sites in Tunisia may reach billions, in addition to daily transactions that reach millions, indicating that these sites are not restricted to the middle class only, but also all the poor and rich classes of society, as everyone dreams of wealth and rapid profit.
The addiction to gambling among some employees amounts to spending all their monthly wages in one day to continue betting on these sites, and sometimes most gamblers are forced to resort to their relatives and acquaintances in order to borrow from them and return to playing.
The games of these sites range from a hundred millimes to millions of dinars, and therefore they tempt everyone to play.
The head of the Consumer Guidance Organization, Lotfi Riahi, confirmed to JDD Tunisia that there are more than 2500 electronic gambling shops in Tunisia and more than half a million Tunisians play gambling games, and therefore there are billions outside the control of the state and a sharp drain of hard currency. Riahi indicated that the Competition Council in 2019 prevented these sites from continuing their activities, and that the only body that the law authorizes is sports betting games that is the “Promospor” company, as Decree No. 20 of 74 prohibits gambling games in which luck prevails over skill.
Riahi called on the relevant authorities to urgently intervene to save the youth and the national economy from this electronic scourge.
The economist, Reda Chkandali, explained to “JDD Tunisia” that the exchange of currency on these sites in an informal way increases the rate of inflation in the parallel economy, given that the exchange process is illegal and does not pass through the central bank. This deepens the severe economic crisis in the country.
Websites that infiltrated Tunisians’ pockets are robbing them of their money and hence deepening their crisis and the state’s economic crisis, without the latter moving to stop this bleeding.
By Reda Jobran
Translated by Moussa Bechir
